Procurement

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At the sight of Chief Ola in the hotel room, Esan knew the whole game was over. Esan, the head of procurement unit of MIKO company - a producer of fertilizer - had come to discuss with Job on the way forward to get out the trouble caused by their insincere attitude towards transactions they did with each other on behalf of their individual organisation.

Everyday is for the thief, one day is for the owner.
Is the above popular proverb in Nigeria about to manifest?


MIKO was established by Chief Ola few years ago to provide solution to the fertilizer needs of the people who are predominantly farmers. He employed the best of brains including some expatriates to get the company started on a good note. The first challenge of the company was the supply of raw materials for the continuous production.


This was becoming a source of worry because it was sending away customers who could not get regular supply of fertilizer to buy for all year farming. In order to solve this problem, advert was placed for someone with experience in procurement to be hired to head the procurement unit of the company.


Esan, who had over 10 years experience from a similar company was interviewed and hired. His coming gave rise to a lot of positive changes in the company. The plant can now run continuously through the year. The raw materials are now easily assessible, thanks to the efforts of Esan. He gained the trust of the company owner, Chief Ola to the extent that his approval of quotations is always accepted by by Chief. In fact, it got to a time that quotations don't go to Chief's table again. Once Esan approves it, the next is for the supplier to bring the raw materials.


Chief Ola was in his office, arranging his papers into drawers in preparation to close for the day when the Engineer in charge of line 1 of the production plants, Engr Rufus came to notify him of the breakdown of production in the line.

What could be the problem? Line 1 is the line producing Urea, the most sorted after of our products. We need to fix this problem as soon as possible. Chief Ola stated.


Engr Rufus immediately called other Engineers and the problem was diagnosed. The ammonia used was of lower quality than the minimum standard.
After spending hours in trying to detect this, Rufus came back to Chief's office - who had remained in office to see to the solution of the problem - and informed him of the discovery.


The following morning, Chief summoned Esan to his office.

The recently procured ammonia has spoilt our production plant - line one. This is the first batch of the Ammonia being introduced into production. Our previous stock was exhausted yesterday. The Engr advised us to discard the ammonia. Please, call the procurement firm and let's discuss this.

Chief directed Esan to get the procurement firm informed immediately.

Alright Sir, I'll swing into action straightaway.


He called the procurement officer, Mr Job immediately to discuss the new development.

There is fire on the mountain

Esan exclaimed on phone.

The ammonia you produced is not of standard quality. I trusted your firm due to our years of business and that's why I didn't bother to take it through quality assurance process. The whole thing has backfired. Chief said you need to come tomorrow so that we can sit and talk. Please let's meet this night to discuss on the way out.


With sweat all-over Esan's face, Esan ended the call and drove straight to meet Job at an agreed spot where they met and discussed.

Is your part of the money still intact? Because I know Chief, he will rely on the memorandum of understanding we signed with your firm to seek for refund. We need to get the whole money ready now.


The ammonia contract was worth 10 million Naira but it was inflated by 5 million Naira by Esan in conjunction with Job. As a result, the company paid 15 million Naira for the ammonia. The 5 million Naira inflated price was shared between Esan and Job.
In his response, Job explained that his 2 million Naira share had been spent. They agreed to meet with Chief the following morning in order see how he (Job) can beg for time on behalf of his company to make refund if that's the only way forward.


They met with Chief and the three of them agreed that Job's firm would refund the money for the ammonia. However, all the efforts to get Job to make his firm do the right thing as agreed timely proved abortive since the meeting. This prompted Chief to go official by sending email to the Chief Executive Officer of the firm producing the ammonia, Mr Amos.


In the course of their interactions, Mr Amos checked the record of his firm and found out that the contract of ammonia supplied to Chief Ola's company is 10 million Naira. Similarly, Chief called on the company's accountant to check the transaction and he discovered that the contract sum was 15 million Naira. It was at this point that both party knew that something was fishy.


Mr Amos confronted Job with his (Amos) call records with the owner and chairman of MIKO company and the accounts department records. After thorough interrogation involving Mr Amos lawyer, Job confessed to the infractions.
In order to make Esan own up to his part of the crime, Job was made to invite him to the hotel where they used to meet.

Invite him to come so that two of you can discuss about a new tactics to manipulate us to maintain innocence position. Mr Amos suggested methodology for Job.


Job invited Esan to the hotel and on entering the room, he met Chief Ola, Amos and Job.
At this point, he realised that the whole issue was now beyond him and his accomplice.
Documents were tendered and both Esan and Job confronted with facts about the issue. They both confessed to the stealing and pleaded for forgiveness.


I trusted you but you betrayed my trust. All the years we have worked together, you decided to end it this way. Only God knows when you started this despicable act.

Chief Ola expressed his disappointment in Esan's action. In his magnanimity, he forgave Esan and also pleaded with Mr Amos to forgive Job. The forgiveness in both sides was about prosecution. Both of them were however fired for insincerity and betrayal of trust.



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5 comments
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One would not expect a story about ammonia procurement to be interesting, but yours works very well. It actually is more like a detective story. Well done. We understand the motivation of the characters, and your 'hook' is great.

We do have one suggestion. The Nigerian proverb is very interesting, but it does not really belong in the middle of a story. This would be considered an instance of author intrusion, which weakens a narrative. It's OK, but better to leave it out, put it at the start of your story (but separated from the body), or put it in the mouth of a character. Of course, you have a great hook so you might not want to put it at the beginning.

Thank you for sharing this story with us, @lightpen. Have you supported other writers in the community with your comments? We expect that from our authors. Thank you!

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Dear @lightpen,
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Thank you!

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If I was Chief Ola the would have spent some jail time. I've been a victim of fraud before. Excellent story, it never strayed from the context.

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What an elaborate scheme! This story kept my interest the whole way through, @lightpen.

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